No decision on charges in Warren belt-whipping

Prosecutors have not yet decided on a police request for criminal charges against two people accused of whipping their 14-year-old cousin of Warren with a belt.

Warren detectives have asked the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office to issue warrants charging a 20-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy, both of Redford, with assault with a dangerous weapon. The offense is a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.

Police officials allege the pair beat the teenager with belts to discipline him for stealing items last autumn at Lincoln Middle School, where he is enrolled.

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The Warren boy was forced into a bedroom, thrown to the floor and whipped for more than one minute while the younger cousin hurled a racial slur at him, police said. The boy screamed at his cousins to stop, said police, and when it was over, the pair told him to go to bed and left the room.

The incident was captured via cellphone video by a juvenile who did not strike the Warren boy and did nothing to stop the whipping, police said.

Images of the discipline -- described by veteran law enforcers as excessive and disturbing – were relayed via text message and eventually landed on Facebook.

An Idaho resident contacted Warren police on Sunday. On Monday, students were abuzz over the incident, prompting school officials to notify police and Macomb County Child Protective Services.

A Warren police school resource officer assigned to the Van Dyke Public Schools viewed the video and recognized the beaten teenager as a student accused last October of stealing candy and other items from the desks of other pupils, police said.

Investigators believe the beating occurred in January or February at the 14-year-old’s home in the 7500 block of Hudson Avenue. The Warren boy and his aunt and uncle -- who are his legal guardians -- were interviewed by detectives Monday. The teen told police he was not seriously injured but declined to show officers if he still had any marks, police said.

The aunt claimed she was unaware of the whipping until officials asked her about it. However, the couple does not want to advance the case toward potential prosecution of her accused relatives.

“They’re less than cooperative,” said Detective Sgt. Steven Mills, who added that police are compelled to move forward and seek warrants in the case.

“We need to protect the interests of the child,” he said.

Dean Alan, chief of warrants for Macomb County prosecutors, did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday to The Macomb Daily.

The boy’s guardians are not the parents of his belt-wielding cousins, police said.

Macomb County Child Protective Services has not removed the boy from his home because the cousins do not reside there and because the parents were not present at the time, police said.

The aunt claimed she and her husband were not at home at the time of the incident because they had left to get a pizza.